


Head Above Water

by fabionprewett22



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25999174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabionprewett22/pseuds/fabionprewett22
Summary: Bella runs.
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Leah Clearwater/Bella Swan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Head Above Water

Photograph - Ed Sheeran, Head Above Water - Avril Lavigne

She ran.

I never really thought she would do it. Run. She broke so many hearts. Charlie. Jacob. Mine. She fought everyone. And then she ran.

I sat there in the last row next to my mom and Seth. Teeth clenched, head straight. I didn’t want to turn around or stand when the music started. I looked out, eyes locked on his marble face. I was focused so hard on not shifting that I didn’t notice at first when the music stopped. I was looking at his face, trying to imagine what it is she loves so much about him that she wants to leave her family. Charlie. Jacob. Me. I only knew something was wrong because he turned to the pixie. The one that calls us dogs.

“Alice.”

When she ran, he didn’t say her name.

Seth grabbed my arm. Billy and Sue were over with Charlie. He was smirking. Her mom was running to the front of the house, her young boyfriend trailing behind her. I heard laughing somewhere. It was the blonde one. Laughing and smiling like she just won the lottery.

She ran.

Seth was trying to talk to me. I think he was asking me if she had said something to me. Last night. Last week. Did I know?

Did I know?

I looked forward again, searching for his face. He had moved off the dais. The mom had her arms around him. The pixie was sitting on the ground, eyes vacant. Searching. The soldier stood behind her, eyes closed and hands fisted. Unmoving. The blonde one was still laughing while her mate, the big one, stood between her and Edward. His body tense like he expected to fight. I couldn’t see the doctor. Probably consoling the guests. Smoothing things over.

I heard someone calling my name. It was my mom. Seth was already walking away with Billy. I stood, following her down the aisle. There were white shoes sitting on the top steps of the back deck. Perfect, little white shoes.

She ran without her shoes.

I snorted. Thinking of her running in a big white dress, barefoot.

Barefoot. Like on the beach.

My smile fell. I looked back, Edward met my eyes. I knew he could see it just as clearly as I could. It was his memory now, just as clearly as it was mine. He had to take one more thing from me.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Cullens left on a hunting trip. Sam had Embry and Quil running the perimeter since morning. Jared and I were going to take the night shift. For now, the pack was at the beach. The guys seeing who could swim the farthest with his breath held. I was with Emily and Kim.

The anger I would have had with being placed with the other girls had long evaporated and been replaced with gratitude that I had my cousin back. I was slowly learning how to be her Leah again. She made it easy. She never stopped being my Emily.

As always, the sound of her ancient truck broke the sound of waves crashing. When she parked I expected her to walk to the water, where Jacob stood playing judge. She came to me though. She asked me to take a walk in that whisper of a voice she has had since being left in the forest. Like she isn’t sure her voice is worth the sound it makes.

I should have known she would want to talk. The last time we saw each other was...stars, sand, waves crashing, warm hands, cold lips...different.

We walked to the base of the cliffs, as far from the guys we could get. 

“Does anyone know?”

“My mind is easy to control. They only see what I want them to see.”

“I don’t know what this means.”

“It means whatever you want it to mean.”

“I feel like I’m drowning, Leah. And that night, that night was like I had finally got my head above water. This whole time, I thought I was fighting for my life, but I think I’ve been reaching for the wrong shore. I’m too young to fall asleep, Leah.”

I looked at her there, with her bottom lip between her teeth. I knew what she wanted me to say, but I didn’t want her choice to be made because of a maybe future I’m not even sure I want. I thought back to stars and waves crashing on the shore and barefeet in the sand. I knew what she wanted me to say, but instead of talking, I took her lips with mine.

When we came up for air she was crying. I wiped her tears and we turned and walked back to the pack. She went home an hour later and I didn’t hear from her until last night. She called me around midnight.

“I’m going to try to keep swimming, Leah.”

She hung up before I could ask where she was swimming to.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slipped my hand in my dress pocket, feeling the tattered edges of the photo I brought with me. Her, Emily, Kim, and myself. Jacob took the photo that last day at the beach. I wanted to bring something human. Something to remind me that she was human.

My mom started the car. Charlie was in the passenger seat. I slipped in the back. Seth had taken Billy in his truck. I could hear my mom trying to talk to Charlie. Reassuring words? Praise? I couldn’t tell.

We drove down that long, twisted drive. Back home? Or to Charlie’s house? I felt the edges of the photo again. I wondered where she was now. Barefoot, in a big white dress. Her mom probably found her. She knows how to run.

Bella ran. She ran and I wanted to sing.


End file.
